The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-06
CoDY's BURGLAR TOOLS.
a Dangerous Outfit that Weighed Only
Five Pounds.
Fon the cincinnati Enquirer.


Flom the Cincinnati EnQuirer
A correspondent ran across Billy Pinker-
ton at the Palmer House, in Chicago, few
nights ago while engaged in private chat
with a well-known detective from police
headquarters. The gist of the talk was in
regard to q big safe robbery that was sue
cessfully executed in Buffalo short time
ago. i'll which the work had been consun-
mated very adroitly by means of the cele-
brated paddy Cody tools. After giving
his theory in regard to the robbery Mr..
Pnkerton grew rather reminiscent and
gave the following story of the neatest and
most dangerous set of safe tools that have
ever been operated in modern times:
81 remember six or seven years ago that
there was regular deluge of robberies per-
retrated throughout the country in the safe
line. A set of safe tools had been invented
by two notorious burglars, Paddy Cody and
Gin Yost, who in from ten to fifteen min
utes could open the most thoroughly bur-
glar-proof safes in the country. The police
all over the country made strenuous efforts
to unearth the secret of these implements,
but for long time were kept in the dark
owing to the secrettveness Of the inventors.
At last Codyand Yost had falling out
over the division of some stolen prop
erty and that let the cat out of the
Day. NIlD OSU HGllb W AIlCtiSO III lSI Ju6
quarrel, taking a set of tools with him,
and ere many days had passed he had or
ganzed gang for operating in the West.
Cody remained in the East and Joined
forces with Tom Mccormack, Johnny Moore
and Charles Mayhem, alias The Down
Easter and for a long time they kept up
successful system of gopher work. In
nearly all these robberies the victims were
retail jewellers located in country towns
IL L, ,A<,I
sale dealers for their own protection to form
what has since been known as the Jewellers
Security Alliance of the United States.
The detective work of this powerful organ
ization was given entirely into the hands of
our detective agency and | at once set to
work to find Glib Yost.
About this time the iewelry store of z.
Vail g. Co., at La Porte, Ind. was robbed
of a large amount of diamonds and jewelry
and from the manner in which the safe had
been opened ] surmised at once that it was
the work of Glib lost and his gang. Know
ing full well that Glib Yost would come TO
Chicago to dispose Of the stolen stuff, had
a sharp lookout kept for him and, not long
afterwards, succeeded in arresting him to-
gether with Billy, alias Bid Hollihan,
Johnny Meany and Eddie Quinn. All ex-
cept Meany were convicted for this robbery
and sentenced to various terms in the Mich
igan City penitentiary in Indiana. During
this time my brother Robert was not idle
in the East.
"a number of extensive robberies had
been committed there and, as he was aware
that there had been split in the Cody Yost
combination, he was pretty certain that the
Eastern gang was engineered by Paddy
Cody. A big job had come off at Ellene-
vile, n Y, and from the description given
Of susp cious characters in the neighborhood
Immediately prior to the robbery Robert
was pretty certain that the men were none
other than the Cody gang. A vigilant look
out was kept towards cOrralling the mob,
which was at last successful, and not long
after the affair Robert had bagged Paddy
Cody, Johnny Moore and Charles Mavhon,
alias The Down-Easter.' Cody took the
witness stand against Mayhem and Moore,
and through his testimony they were SEN
fenced to five years each in the penitentary.
I think Moore and Mayhem were released
about two weeks ago and | was told they
had gone directly to New York city.
by this time the tools had become pretty
well known among expert burglars and
craftsmen, and in this manner the secret
leaked out. The modus operandi was sim
ply to bore five-eighths inch hole between
the combination and the handle of the safe,
then strike the dog connection, force it and
it was then an easy matter to lift the com.
bination with piece of umbrella wire and
throw the bolts back In this way an or
binary fire-proof or burglar-proof safe can
be opened in from ten to fifteen minutes.
These tools are very dangerous from the
fact that the whole kit does not weigh over
five pounds, and can be carried handily In
the inside coat pocket. For their lightness
in heft and advantage in being carried
about the person unnoticed, they were
termed among the crooked fraternity the
vest-pocket edition. The tools consist of a
drill, which fits into spindle. The spindle
fits into a sleeve, which is placed in pres
sure bar. On top of the sleeve is wrench,
which feeds into the drill and the spindle
is also made to hold the taps When the
hole has been thoroughly drilled and the
threads cut into it about twelve threads to
the lnch), then what are known as the
pressure-bar and screw are used, which fit
the threads and break the dog connection
between the handle and the combination.
The handle is used to fit on top of the spin
die, and the entire mechanism is attached
to the safe by a link, which adjusts itself
over the preSsure-bar over the handle of the
safe. The link was generally used IN case
of 'T'-handled safe The whole power of
pressure which enables the tools to do their
work is obtained through the agency Of the
handle on the safe. AS / stated before, the
whole operation very seldom lasts over fif-
teen minutes, and this was the big advan-
tage gained over the old style of cracking
safes with powder and fuse-moreover there
was no noise occasioned in using the vest
pocket edition
"Gib Yost, after he was placed behind the
bars at Michigan City, at once resorted to
the insanity dodge to effect an escape. For
this purpose he would eat soap for the dou-
BILE purpose Of reducing his flesh and pro-
ducing foaning at the mouth when it
served his purpose best The prison off
cials, however, were fully up to GIBBS ruse
and paid little attention to his spurious
rawlings He, however, became intractable
and was thrown into the dungeon for awhile,
but this did not dampen his purpose and he
continued in his feigned attempts at insanity
even up to the time of his death. which oc-
CURED several years ago while in prison.
From the use of soap as a succulent luxury
he had been reduced almost to skeleton at
the time of his death Johnny Meany, the
only member of his gang who escaped the
penitentiary for the robbery at LaPorte,
Ind, is now serving term In the outskirts
of London. Eddie Quinn is still serving
out his ten years sentence at Michigan City,
and has been trying of late, through the
instrumentality of friends, to get pardon
In the last year or so Eddie has given his
attention to literature and is now finishing
a book on Criminal Life which he intends
ho &c